I was fairly fit, doing lots of dog walking, gardening, tennis, swimming, acting and playwriting  – I guess I might have been a few pounds overweight as I’d just finished an MA in Archaeology at the end of September, and that had lots of sitting down and writing.  After I’d  finished I celebrated by joining in a dig locally (in Wiltshire, and in the October) and then flew to New York at the end of November, early December.

I’d had three visits to the GP surgery with ‘problems’.  In mid-October, after the dig, I had a blocked eardrum causing pain and a couple of really dizzy spells.  I did go to a doctor, who prescribed antibiotics and painkillers.  In early November I went to the dentist for a filling on a cracked tooth.  Unfortunately this was overfilled and caused a lot of pain, which in hindsight may have masked some other symptoms.  Then in the middle of November I went to GP as I was getting double vision.  I could only read the centre part of any writing.  Since I was writing a play at the time and had real problems with ordering my writing and my spelling went ‘off’.

My GP suggested I went to optician or an eye clinic.  I went to my optician the following day and she apparently wrote to the surgery and eye clinic to say I should have follow up tests.  I was neither told at the time, nor was I recalled to eye clinic.  I heard over a year later that they couldn’t read her writing!!

I did have a lovely time in New York, despite the tooth pain, but nothing else really troubled me.  A few days after I got home I became very confused and lost much of my speech had word finding difficulties.  I managed to get another GP appointment 3 days later and the GP suggested it could be confusion  caused by diabetes and to attend a diabetes clinic in January the following year.  However I called my friend that evening, who had been party to my woes, and her husband who is an osteopath, and they told me to get myself to A&E for an MRI straight away.

Nobody at any time had mentioned stroke.

I called the GP next morning and demanded to be referred, which he did.  I spent the day at A&E, had a CT scan, which was diagnosed as a stroke.  I was put on a raft of tablets; clopidogrel, amlodipine and atorvastatin and sent home with MRI appointment for 24^th.

I was lucky in one way.  I had no obvious physical problems, although I have had subsequent balance issues and general weakness in my hands, but I couldn’t read or speak properly and had severe cognitive issues and general confusion.